Destructo Girl

A few days ago, Little B was left to her own devices in front of the TV.  She was enjoying her new library DVD Stella & Sam.  She simply calls it Sam, and seems to love it.  Now I do admit, that I leave her alone while she watches her DVD, so that I can either have a bit of time to myself, or do some clean-up, like dishes or laundry.  On this particular day, I was writing an email to my friend in Korea.  From the other room, I hear "Mommy, it's not working" (or something similar).  I walk into the TV room to see that the DVD player is having trouble reading the disc.  Uh-oh, I think.  Did Bethany break the DVD player??  

I re-start the DVD player, then check that the DVD is in the machine the correct way... Still reading...  I turn the power bar on and off... Still reading...  And then I think... uh-oh, what if the DVD player is fine... and what if she scratched the library DVD??  I flip the DVD over to check for scratches, and that's when I noticed the giant CRACK that Little B somehow made on one-half of the disc.  My heart sank and I fumed inside.  How did this happen, I think to myself.  Oh right, I left her by herself with her DVDs and figured she wouldn't destroy anything in my absence.  Her fault, AND my fault.  Sigh.  My bad.

Is it a parenting fail to have allowed her some independence from myself?  Is it a parenting fail to leave her by herself while she watches her DVDs?  Is it a parenting fail that I sometimes let the TV babysit Little B while I go off and do something else??  Probably.... more of a yes than no.  I can't deny any of the above.  The DVD breakage is just as much my fault as it is Little B's.  It's kinda difficult to blame a 2.5 year old... breaking things is what they do sometimes.  The tougher part will be admitting to the librarian that my toddler cracked the DVD, and the even tougher part will be paying the extra fine that comes along with "destroyed" library materials.  The library materials are due on Tuesday...  I will be bringing extra cash with me to the library that day, and we may just refrain from taking out any more DVD's for the week until I feel less guilty. For now, I've put away her library DVD's, and we may just have to revert back to Youtube and streaming random episodes from various websites.